September 23, 2017

Seaside

When my friend invited me down to her timeshare condo in Seaside, I honestly didn't want to go. It's a fairly long drive, I prefer Cannon Beach to Seaside, and my nerves have been jangled by some personal issues related to relationships and retirement. But I'm fairly decent at talking myself into adventure, especially when it involves the ocean, which I've always found therapeutic. Plus, the new car needed a road trip! :)

Seaside was the End of the Trail for Lewis and Clark, and in spite of the touristy town, there is quite a lot of beauty and history. I have only been here once before, many years ago for a family vacation, so this visit was bittersweet.

I explored a lot on my own because my friend's health is still poor, and she also had to do some work remotely on her computer for a trip back up to Alaska. A nice gentleman from Charlottesville, Virginia took this photo; I'm not shy about asking people for help, and it was interesting to chat with him. He's headed up to Seattle next; should I have warned him about the TRAFFIC?

I think my state of Washington is gorgeous, but the Oregon coast is something special, especially with the beautiful weather we had.

This isn't my best photo, but my car is in it too so I had to post it. :) In what I thought was my most dramatic picture, there is a close up of a d*mn fly! It could only happen to me. sigh

The sunsets were amazing! This view is from the deck of our condo. However, it wasn't all sweetness and light on this trip...

The marine climate did not treat my bangs well at all. They looked great in the morning, but then there was a long walk down the Promenade, and back up the beach, creating this Eggbeater look. Unfortunately, my friend felt lousy because of her chronic health issues, which put a damper on the activities we could do together. Every traffic issue went wrong on the way home today, a lengthy and slow detour to the freeway, an accident on I-5, Fair traffic on the local freeway to my house, yet the new car was a dream, the Sirius radio has been a lifesaver, and the cruise control, which reads the speed of the car ahead of me and slows when it needs to, was magic!

In the meantime, Ashley is planting rice in Senegal, doing interviews, and missing Ryan and Ziggy. Henry is dealing with bringing his dying mom home from the rehab center, and caring for her, probably mostly on his own. :( Alison is busy doing her own thing, whatever that is. Thus, I am truly on my own, and feeling sorry for myself. Times are tough, and am I really tougher? I'm working on it.

Comments

Seaside

When my friend invited me down to her timeshare condo in Seaside, I honestly didn't want to go. It's a fairly long drive, I prefer Cannon Beach to Seaside, and my nerves have been jangled by some personal issues related to relationships and retirement. But I'm fairly decent at talking myself into adventure, especially when it involves the ocean, which I've always found therapeutic. Plus, the new car needed a road trip! :)

Seaside was the End of the Trail for Lewis and Clark, and in spite of the touristy town, there is quite a lot of beauty and history. I have only been here once before, many years ago for a family vacation, so this visit was bittersweet.

I explored a lot on my own because my friend's health is still poor, and she also had to do some work remotely on her computer for a trip back up to Alaska. A nice gentleman from Charlottesville, Virginia took this photo; I'm not shy about asking people for help, and it was interesting to chat with him. He's headed up to Seattle next; should I have warned him about the TRAFFIC?

I think my state of Washington is gorgeous, but the Oregon coast is something special, especially with the beautiful weather we had.

This isn't my best photo, but my car is in it too so I had to post it. :) In what I thought was my most dramatic picture, there is a close up of a d*mn fly! It could only happen to me. sigh

The sunsets were amazing! This view is from the deck of our condo. However, it wasn't all sweetness and light on this trip...

The marine climate did not treat my bangs well at all. They looked great in the morning, but then there was a long walk down the Promenade, and back up the beach, creating this Eggbeater look. Unfortunately, my friend felt lousy because of her chronic health issues, which put a damper on the activities we could do together. Every traffic issue went wrong on the way home today, a lengthy and slow detour to the freeway, an accident on I-5, Fair traffic on the local freeway to my house, yet the new car was a dream, the Sirius radio has been a lifesaver, and the cruise control, which reads the speed of the car ahead of me and slows when it needs to, was magic!

In the meantime, Ashley is planting rice in Senegal, doing interviews, and missing Ryan and Ziggy. Henry is dealing with bringing his dying mom home from the rehab center, and caring for her, probably mostly on his own. :( Alison is busy doing her own thing, whatever that is. Thus, I am truly on my own, and feeling sorry for myself. Times are tough, and am I really tougher? I'm working on it.

Book Club Reads

Eowyn Ivey: The Snow Child: A NovelAlthough some disliked this book at Book Club, I absolutely loved it and found it entrancing. You have to like magical realism and fairy tales though. It was beautifully written and captivated me! (*****)

Ann Patchett: State of WonderAlthough the ending was contrived(still loved it by the way), I adored the writing, the plot and the ethical dilemmas of this novel. It was also extremely well-written! (*****)

Jennifer Haigh: Faith: A NovelAlthough told in an unusual style and full of disturbing elements, I loved this book for the stories it told and the meaning behind them. It's about faith, but also about families, people and love. (*****)

J. Courtney Sullivan: MaineThis summer read was lacking a plot or a sympathetic character, but it engendered one of the best recent discussions at Book Club about families and dysfunction. Who would have thought? (***)

David Mitchell: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A NovelAlthough I wanted to read this book, it was VERY heavy going and only gets ***1/2. The positives were that I learned a lot about history and culture. The major negative was that it was a bunch of convoluted stories that didn't mesh well, in my opinion. (***)

Robert Crais: TakenI consider any book with Elvis Cole and Joe Pike in it a page turner, but Elvis is no longer funny and Pike is taking over the series. However, the book was well plotted and very tense; I couldn't put it down in the last few chapters! (****)

Laini Taylor: Daughter of Smoke and BoneDespite the low score of ***1/2, I did enjoy the book. It just got too melodramatic when it got into the romance part, which may be because it's a Young Adult book. (***)

Elizabeth George: Believing the LieI paid $0.45 to keep this book overdue to find out how in the world George would tie all these stories together. (she didn't) This was a disappointing and sometimes frustrating read with good potential. However, I still like Lynley and some of it was decent--just not most of it. (***)

Jo Nesbo: The LeopardI'm not doing a very good job of keeping my sidebar updated with books; I'm mainly reading mysteries. Jo Nesbo is one of my new favorites, gruesome as his stories are. This book was great until the end. It kind of fell apart for me there. (****)